Air traffic, both private and commercial, continues to increase. With this increase, there has been a concomitant increase in the likelihood of runway incursions. Efforts are thus being made to increase aircraft flight crew situational awareness during ground operations. As part of this effort, a format for airport surface map databases has been developed that can be used to render airport surface maps on one or more flight deck displays. Although quite useful in providing a standard database from which to render airport surface maps, the database does not provide any position and/or orientation information for the various taxiway identifiers.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method that will display appropriate identifiers on aircraft pathways, such as runways, taxiways, and/or apron elements, and that will provide sufficient position and/or orientation information to the flight crew. The present invention addresses at least this need. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.